This weekend the new adventure comedy Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle hits theaters, starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, and Karen Gillan. Before Jumanji, fans of Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart will want to check out their earlier team-up in Central Intelligence, a hilarious action comedy that hit theaters last year. It’s streaming and available now on home video.

Laugh out loud funny, Johnson plays Bob, a rogue CIA operative who was a bullied kid in school, assisted in an embarrassing moment back in school by the most popular, “most likely to succeed” kid, C.J., played by Kevin Hart. Hart doesn’t end up governor as predicted by his schoolmates, but settles into a typical office job as an accountant. As their 20th class reunion approaches, Bob, no longer the butt of jokes but a chiseled special ops machine, enlists C.J. for his accounting knowledge to help him flush out a traitor in the agency.

The CIA agent in charge, played by Amy Ryan, tries to convince C.J. that Bob isn’t who he claims to be–that he is in fact the traitor and his evaluations recently revealed a man on the edge, and he killed his partner. The hijinks commence once C.J. must decide whether “he’s in” or not, as an awkward and over-the-top Bob is completely embracing a partnership with someone he has grown to believe is the ultimate cool guy. Johnson and Hart are both at the top of their game here–Hart playing his rattled and jittery straight man routine and Johnson as the opposite of his image, uncomfortably sensitive, proud of his fanny pack, fanboying about unicorns and dropping Twilight references-–and he’s a big hugger.

Central Intelligence is full of good-humored fun that fans of Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg’s The Other Guys will love (Johnson has a great cameo with Samuel L. Jackson in that film). Stay around after the film for some great outtakes.

Co-starring in Central Intelligence are Danielle Nicolet (The Flash, 3rd Rock from the Sun) as C.J.’s wife, Jason Bateman (Paul, Hancock) as one of the bullies grown-up, and Ryan Hansen (Veronica Mars) as C.J.’s brown-nosing co-worker.

One of 2016’s best under-rated comedies, check out Central Intelligence now, playing on Cinemax, streaming on Vudu and Amazon Prime, and available here from Amazon on DVD, Blu-ray and 4K–if you need a good laugh.
C.J. Bunce
Editorborg.com